Economic rebound will lower jobless rate: minister

The government will wait before proposing any more measures to create jobs because the economic turnaround should mitigate rising unemployment soon, a minister said yesterday.

“We believe there will be a significant decrease in the unemployment rate from September thanks to the measures already in place. The improvement in the business climate will create more jobs in the private sector,” Minister without Portfolio James Hsueh (薛承泰) said.

Hsueh made the remarks at a press conference following an intergovernmental meeting on the unemployment rate that was chaired by Vice Premier Paul Chiu (邱正雄).

Unemployment was 5.94 percent last month, with 647,000 people out of work — an increase of 14,000 people over May, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics said last week.

“With expansion projects, construction projects, temporary job creation projects and the 2009 to 2012 employment promotion project, the number of jobs created by the end of the year will be between 60,000 and 70,000,” Hsueh said.

Vice Minister of Education Lin Tsong-ming (林聰明) said the ministry had helped place 17,529 new graduates in internships in the public and private sectors under a program it launched in April. The ministry expected to match 10,000 graduates with employers offering regular positions.

The Ministry of Education has estimated that about 40 percent of graduates — or 124,000 of about 310,000 in recent years — enter the job market each year.

Council of Labor Affairs Deputy Minister Pan Shih-wei (潘世偉) said the council would host 18 job fairs by the end of this year to help match job seekers with employers.